New strain is set to be dominant

THE new mutated virus found in the UK is likely to become the dominant global strain of Covid-19, a scientist advising the Government has said.

Calum Semple, professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the new strain is infecting many more people in the same amount of time that the previous variant did.

When asked on Sky News whether the mutant coronavirus will become the dominant strain around the world, he said: “I suspect it will, or strains like it will. Because the virus has the evolutionary advantage in transmitting more quickly, it will out-compete all the other strains, and so it will naturally do that.

“As immunity comes into the community more widely, then you’ll start to see more pressure on the virus and you’re more likely to see other escapes of other variations.”

He said the UK deals with evolving strains of the flu virus every year, adding: “The flu vaccine typically contains three or four flavours of the influenza virus and we simply pick on a best-guess basis each season, and people that make the vaccines scale up in a timely manner.”